For the Record, Anger Does Not Equal Interest

This, a link found over on Insolvent Republic of Blogistan (great title, btw), is irritating to the extreme.

Here are the quotes that gall me:

James Robinson: "That decision [was] a controversial and one that I know has been greeted with some displeasure by some people... I'm sorry if it upset people. In all honesty, they wanted to kill Speedy too, and I said no, so give me some credit for that."

Ian Sattler: "I'm happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion."

Uh, no. Upset means upset. It means the CHARACTERS have weight for us. Whether or not the story does and can evoke emotion depends on the story, how well it's written, for example. And the emotion you want when a child is killed is grief and yes, anger that she was killed, but directed at the bad guy in the comic, not the bad guy in the editorial office. Or the bad guy typing up the words.

Lian has weight and her death matters because 1) she's Roy's daughter, and 2) she's a little girl. That she died is the sad thing, not the way she was killed. That just sucked, story-wise, art-wise, every-wise.

As for Speedy, I'd sooner have had them kill Mia, much as I like her, because she's relatively new next to Lian whose been around 23 years, for fuck's sake. Sheesh. It's a little girl, killed only to give Ollie grief and angst. Roy's angst seems almost an afterthought here. Hmmm.... lost an arm, lost a daughter... toss-up which will drive him mad and maybe to drugs first. But Ollie? He's out there avenging an entire city. Why did a little girl have to die to further that plot point?

Shit. This just makes me angry. The story sucked. I did not buy it. I skimmed it in the store (don't tell FPNY, okay?), because I knew it was gonna suck. If, maybe, it looked like it wouldn't suck, or Lian wasn't dead, I would've bought it, but it sucked. SUCKED! If the idea is to get people to never want to read anything James Robinson writes ever again, congrats! Because I sure won't. I just don't trust him. (Yes, I bought the Starman books. Yes, I still plan to read those, as I have no emotion invested in that character.)

No, Mr. Robinson. I will not give you any credit.

No, Mr. Sattler, the story did not anger me because it was evocative. It angered me because it was crap.

Yeah, I'm pissed.

Not a Review, Just Some Thoughts

I can't do a proper review of Justice League Rise and Fall Special. I want to, but my thoughts about the issue run more toward feelings than any commentary on the actual story. First, J.T. Krul did a much better job with this monstrosity of a storyline than James Robinson did in the Cry for Justice (which I just skimmed) lead-in. But there's only so much anyone can do with this material. To be fair, Ollie's narration showed a semblance of self-awareness, as in he seems aware that he's being a complete jerk, a total douche, a self-serving maniac. But still, he's not stopping to take a deep breath and figure out what's really important, like, perhaps, being there for Roy. Oh, no, not Ollie. And in that sense, he's in character. Because, after all, this is the insensitive idiot who threw Roy out when he caught Roy shooting up heroin and this is the Ollie who more recently, when Roy was shot 5 times and which already seems forgotten, when some of the Titans formed a new Outsiders group, rushed out to find the bastard who was behind it all rather than stick around while Roy was in a coma (sound familiar?). So, in character.

Even the killing of Prometheus could be considered in character, because he is hotheaded, though I'm on the fence about him leaving the body to rot and waiting for the deed to be discovered and not mentioning it to anyone until he said something that led Dinah to realize the truth. Ah, Ollie. Such an asshole.

But then, I hope Krul keeps in mind that Ollie is, at his core following the loss of his fortune back in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow days, a bleeding heart liberal out to right the wrongs of the world (over population, pollution, racism, fanaticism, the ism of your choice), which led to some debates/arguments/fights with conservative Hawkman, until lesser writers just wrote Ollie as being argumentative without an actual agenda.

So, Roy doesn't actually appear in this issue, except for what seems to be a flashback, with him staggering down a corridor leaving a bloodtrail from the stump where his arm once was. Which led me to this bizarre thought...

Why couldn't they rip off his other arm instead? The left one, with the Navaho tattoo that no one ever remembers to draw in anymore. I remember when Barry Kitson took over the Titans book near the end of its run (that time) -- at least, my memory is telling me it was Kitson -- he was a fairly regular poster on the DC boards, as was I back then, and he was quite happy to draw the tattoo once we who actually remembered it, mentioned it on the boards. If they'd just ripped off that arm, then no one would ever be vulnerable to the accusation that they forgot/didn't want to draw the tattoo.

Here's another thought/omission. In the conversation Wally and Dick have, they discuss how it's been perhaps just luck that's kept them from being hurt the way Roy was. Never mind that Roy almost died from that shooting a while back, or that all of them have been hurt seriously -- especially Dick, in all the Bat books, including his own as Nightwing -- but not once do they mention Lian and how awful it is that Roy's six-year-old (or thereabouts) daughter was so horribly killed. Lian played with Wally's kids. Dick helped Roy get custody of Lian. Can they/did they not shed a tear for her? Are they not upset? Can they really calmly discuss Roy and how Wally "graduated" into his mentor's role before Dick, or Roy, did, without showing any sadness for Lian's death?

So, while what was there wasn't bad and some of it was pretty decent, I ended up not liking the book for all that wasn't there, the emotion, the sadness, the horror that a little girl was dead which is as awful as Ollie killing her killer or Roy lying unconscious and unaware the light of his life is gone. I'm looking forward to the Arsenal mini-series. At least in those books, the story should focus on Roy and all he's lost and will have to deal with, and not focus on Ollie, because so much of this so far feels like "all Ollie, all the time."

feh

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Lian Harper, 1986-2010: A Tribute, Part 2

Continuing a look at the short, sweet life of Lian Harper. Not that Lian's life was perfect. From the start, she was used as a by her mother against her father. And in the next appearance I read, she was kidnapped as part of a plot to control Cheshire.

The team-up of Batman and Arsenal in the Batman plus Arsenal (1997) one-shot was wonderfully played and with Batman (and Dick)'s help, Lian is rescued, Cheshire is captured, and "Uncle Batman" becomes an important part of Lian's life. The art was especially nice, even if there's no hint of Asian features in Cheshire, or Lian.

From here on, it was hard for me to choose comics to scan, or even pages/panels. I've tried to show an array of art styles, while keeping the total number of images presented in this two-part essay to ten.

The Arsenal 4-part mini-series (1998) is a classic. Rick Mays has a cartoonish style that worked nicely for Roy and Lian, and Dinah who appeared in key scenes.

There are so many wonderful scenes in these 4 issues, but this nicely showed how seriously Roy took his role as father. He's taken Lian to the hospital after she's fallen on her arm after crawling out of her playpen. Which makes her a bit younger than her previous appearances. No matter. Her age seemed to fluctuate from story to story and sometimes, panel to panel. Drawing children seems to be a problem for many artists. Some draw them too young, some get the proportions wrong, and some just draw them as short adults. But there were enough who got Lian just right.

Lian got to join Roy and his fellow former Teen Titans for lunch in Titans 1 (1999). She was cute as could be without being annoying. I loved when she called Aqualad "Gill-head," something she no doubt picked up from Roy.

This panel from Titans 24 (2001) is part of a alternate time/reality mashup that brought a grown Lian Harper into our reality where she and our version of her younger self meet. We'll never see our Lian grow up to be this beautiful young woman.

In the years since her birth, Lian was kidnapped a few times and had to cope with injuries to her father, the worst of which had him shot 5 times. She had to cope with having a mother in prison for blowing up a country, among other crimes. Through it all, she remained a sweet little girl who made Roy proud to be her father. He learned as much from her as she learned from him. She made him a better man.

Roy will have to cope with losing her and we might be treated to an excellent story, but however this turns out for Roy, wherever he ends up, Lian will still be gone and the unique view she brought to the DCU will also be gone. I can't imagine the PTB can come up with a plausible way to bring her back someday. Even if they would try, which I doubt. People who can kill off a child for no reason other than shock and effect, when other plot devices would have worked as well without being so cruel. J.T. Krul will have his work cut out for him, to make me not hate what happens with Roy.

I'll end with this lovely page from Justice League of America. Roy is introducing Lian to Hawkgirl, before things soured between him and Kendra.

Lian Harper. She'll be missed.

Lian Harper, 1986-2010: A Tribute, Part 1

Here's a post I never wanted to write, and it got long enough that I'm splitting it into two posts. Mainly, I present a photo essay on Lian, who in her brief life lit up the DCU. She will be missed.

I thought I'd start with her first appearances (the ones I have/know of, at any rate). Note her red hair, no doubt colored as such to make it clear that Roy was the father.

Cheshire dropped the bombshell about Lian in New Teen Titans 21 (1986). Roy had romanced Cheshire when he was a government agent and had no clue he'd fathered a child with her. At the end of the story, he goes to see Cheshire so he can meet his daughter. After a moment's hesitation, Cheshire relents, and Roy's life as a father begins.

A year later, Roy tricked Dick Grayson into helping him get to Lian, wanting to see her for her birthday. The story took place in Action Comics Weekly. In issue 618 (1988), in the concluding chapter, Dick brings Lian to see Roy in the hospital where Roy is recovering from a dose of Cheshire's poison.

Dick was a true friend in this, forgiving Roy for his deception and helping him get Lian. At the end of the story, Cheshire has been arrested, and Roy is going to try for custody of Lian.

We'll forgive the silly, girlish bonnet; Roy was new at this and he probably figured a little girl should wear something cutesy and girlie. Or maybe one of the nurses picked it up for him. No matter. Lian was in jeans before long.

This is an important panel in Roy's development. He says he believes Lian is going to change him, and he was right. She made him a better person, a responsible person. He sure took his role of father seriously, more than Ollie did when Roy showed up or when he found out about Connor all those years ago.

The next appearance of Lian that I know of was in Green Arrow 75 (1993). I had stopped reading Green Arrow around issue 45, tired of waiting for the creative team to even acknowledge that Roy existed in Ollie's life. A few things are worth noting. Lian's hair is still red (the scan's a bit off) and Lian demonstrates a never seen again power of changing her height from panel to panel. She's barely at Roy's waist in the first panel above, but in the last panel, she comes to Roy's mid-chest. Holy growth spurts, uh, Batman.

And Batman played a role in the next story I saw that featured Lian, which I'll show in part 2.